Design and Performance of the New Wind Tunnel in the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at the UniBw München

A new 0.5m x 0.5m and 60 m/s subsonic wind tunnel of Göttinger type with closed test section is built in the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Universität der Bundeswehr München. The preliminary power estimation of the planned tunnel is based on an existing NASA program, which accuracy is validated here against some existing large scale wind tunnels and their real working conditions. The space limitations in the laboratory lead to individual design solutions, for example a short and partially separating high speed diffuser where the suppression of separation is finally realised by a particular, intrusive flow element. The design of the sheet metal corner vanes is based on extensive CFD studies in addition to literature based experience. The entire wind tunnel is finally self built and about 90% of the material is based on hardware store equipment. The commissioning of the wind tunnel is accompanied by performance and flow quality measurements, the results of which will be presented.